xkcd

The Food Forum's Evil Twin. Trying to lose weight or get in shape? Tips, encouragement, status reports, and so forth go here.Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, we are not health professionals. Take advice with salt.

Ok, short break to get my daughter... she was having "NO-ONE IS HOLDING ME!!" distress. Now I am holding her. She feels a lot better now, and she's apparently pretending she's an evil overlord, and my arm is her friend Catherine. Yes, Mr Bigglesworth... yes...

That's me. That is a barbed wire fence and a tree behind me, to give you some sense of scale. People guess my weight to be about 240, or 250 (earlier today, Alvin, a guy in my office who looks JUST like Doc from Boondock Saints / Fraggle Rock, said "The fuck you are!" when I told him my real weight) but I am actually between 300 and 310 lbs. That is... a lot, for those of you who might not know. I weigh more than the average married couple.

Fear me.

This is my thread for... I dunno, getting in shape, & junk. Hard to type, baby is mad. Ok, she's better. Not sure how t o start this... in a given day, I have 30 minutes when I am not doing something for someone else, and that's usually 10:30 to 11. It doesn't leave much (any) time for working out. I try to walk at lunch, but half the time I work through lunch just to take care of the piled-up crap on my desk. I try to eat less, but I get very hungry without quite a lot of food ( see pictures of horror).

Working out a healthier plan for snacks and walking, test-driving it next week. Stay tuned!

The entire reason there isn't a fitness thread, but a fitness sub-forum is because could you imagine the mess that one thread would be?

Anyhoo, MJ, you have to make time for working out and actively change your eating habits, at home and at work. Talk to the Wife about cooking healthier meals, stop going out for food ever, SCHEDULE GYM TIME/WORK OUTS!, drink a lot a lot a lot of water, make your own healthy lunch. The one in all caps is important. Too often, people rely on having free time to work out, but that's not what it should be. This should be an important aspect of your life and should be treated as such, so schedule time for it like you would schedule anything else. And don't let yourself back out.

You can do it, MJ!

(I just realized that you and the Wife are Topper and Poppy, correct? That's cute.)

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:I played "porn" against my sister last night.

Meaux_Pas wrote:So in otherwords, it's like the best cake ever, covered in bees.

I do 90% of the cooking, and our suppers are generally quite healthy, and vegetarian about half the time. Last night was cauliflower-mashed-potatoes, carrots, salad, squash, and fish sticks. The unhealthy parts are the snack I need around 10 to make my stomach stop screaming at me, and the repeated forays into the world of purchaseable food when I am at work. There are five buffets within easy walking distance of my office (and luckily, I think I've gotten sick of them).

I'm trying to stick with one big can of soup at work (250 calories) 2 apples (120 calories) and just coffee (20 calories each). One walk to the mall and back at lunch burns 300 calories, so that takes care of a big chunk of my lunch. I need something to keep me from constantly being hungry. Sadly, I hate celery, and carrots don't do much for me (especially since a friend of mine got Vitamin A toxicity from eating too many carrots... its funny in a tragic way). People say to just drink water if I feel hungry, but then I feel bloated, and hungry, which is harder to ignore.

Anyways, off to make breakfast for the kids, and clean for my son's 6th birthday party (I am so old).

FRUITS! Eat fruits. All day. They are delicious and good for you and they are Nature's Candy, for the love of pete. If you mix sliced pineapple, mango and strawberries together in a bag, all the juices mix together and it is pretty much delicious. Any fruit will do. Have a banana, bananas are delicious.

YOU GUYS: Eat some fruit. Everyone. It's delicious.

So there's Topper, Throkky (what?), Poppy and who else now? HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUR SON! Brayden Kai's birthday is Monday and he will also be six. I got him Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I reccommend this to all parents as a gift for six-year-old boys.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:I played "porn" against my sister last night.

Meaux_Pas wrote:So in otherwords, it's like the best cake ever, covered in bees.

Also, I do eat fruit, and it's true that fruit sugars are metabolized easier than other sugars, but I'd go through an unhealthy amount of apples and bananas if given the option. Also, I sadly hate pineapples and strawberries (and, indeed, most fruits).

Yes, well the key is finding what fruits work for you. Or change it up, keep a stock of granola bars or Cliff bars at work for in case you get hungry. Have a small salad. Have some peanut butter with your apples. Don't get stuck in a yucky, snacky rut.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:I played "porn" against my sister last night.

Meaux_Pas wrote:So in otherwords, it's like the best cake ever, covered in bees.

So I guess what you really need to find is something filling, quick, and low-cal. This might help, it's a list of the world's healthiest foods. I'd say popcorn and nuts are very filling and pretty portable and healthy.

Also, I know you say that you need a lot of food to feel full. If you can stand to eat less, even maybe just subtract 100 daily calories each week, you could shrink your stomach so it feels fuller faster. And do you drink soda or any carbonated beverages? Carbonation can expand the stomach too, so it takes longer to feel full.

My granola bars are 150 cals each, and it takes 3 to get me to stop snacking. Bananasare 400 cals / lb. Salads are expensive for how much I need to even notice I ate something. I should drink more water at work, and now that the break room kitchen finally got finished, we have a huge fridge for storing food. I'm thinking of hitting Old Town Market on Mondays during lunch (it's a drive, but they have by FAR the best produce AND best prices in town. 2.5 lbs of oranges for a buck!

Actually, heads of lettuce are 79 cents there.... hmmmm. I make my own lo-cal dressing, maybe salads aren't so crazy.

Ok, is this an eating disorder or not? I've been thinking, quite paranoiacally, the past few days, and it keeps coming around to this... if there is food present, and I am not currently VERY full, I will eat it. If I am not hungry, I will eat it, BECAUSE I am not full. And not just full, but very full. For instance: the Skor bar incident. I didn't want a Skor bar before I saw it, I was not hungry, and was not actively looking for food. However, when I saw it, I thought "Hey, I like Skor bars", so I ate it. It was not until after that I thought "I shouldn't have done that, I'm trying to LOSE weight."

I NEVER remember that I've sworn to stop doing things until after I've done the opposite. It's not just food, but for the sake of conversation, we'll stick to food. I've vowed to eat less at work, but during the entire period where I make lunch plans with a friend, walk to the restaraunt, then eat three plates of food, I do not remember this. Only after, when I am walking back to the office, do I think "Oh, yeah, I have apples and soup, and it didn't just cost me twelve dollars." Seconds at home, a handful of chocolate chips before dinner, cheese toast at 10pm, it doesn't matter... it's only after I've eaten that I remember that I wasn't supposed to eat anything.

Does anyone have any good hints, or ideas, for keeping this sort of thing in mind, 24/7? Because I sure as hell don't.

MJ, it does sound like compulsive overeating...and really until you get to the root of the problem emotionally you're never really going to be able to control it. Have you tried keeping a food diary? It really helps to have to commit everything you eat to paper, and you may find yourself less likely to eat something if you have to be held accountable in such a manner. Also, you really need to think whether this "fullness" you're in search of can be found in food?

"Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can't see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees."

Buffets are good for making me feel full (I'm good for eight hours after that). It probably is emotional, I've been this way since I was 4. However, my teenaged metabolism had no problems handling 4000+ calories per day.

My ADULT metabolism? Not as much.

Emotional problems notwithstanding, on those rare times I can keep a vow in mind, I'm good for a few days, but I always backslide. I was thinking about getting a pistolgrip tattoo on my right hand, so anytime I reach for something, I could not help but see this little reminder. It may seem extreme, but it's been a decade, and I think extreme measures might be necessary.

MJ, I agree with Cara. If there's any way you can keep track of what you're eating, you're going to be constantly aware of it. I have a history of binge eating, and when I was tracking what I ate, it helped me realize what I was doing. I still had the occasional binge, but it was much more controlled when I knew I would have to account for the calories later on, see how high the fat and carb counts were and how little protein I'd had.

I mentioned this in the random tips post, but when I was originally learning to eat right, I used a site called calorie-count.com. It's really helpful in tracking what you're eating. If your work doesn't block the site, you should look into it and see if you think it could help.

In my experience one of the differences between American/Canadian culture and European culture is that we eat until we are full, while they eat until they are not hungry.

Also:1) Count, in a journal, how many calories you eat per day for maybe 10 days. Take extra measures to make sure your weight changes as little as possible during that time.2) Average it.3) Subtract 5004) It shouldn't be that hard to cut 500 calories a day, right? Given 4,000 calories, that's only 1/8 of your daily intake. At that rate, you should lose 1 pound every 7 days and shouldn't be much hungrier.5) I'm serious about the counting. Don't eat at restaurants that don't have nutritional facts. And eat any kind of food you want, as long as by the end of the day you are 500 calories below your maintenance value.

"Welding was faster, cheaper and, in theory,
produced a more reliable product. But sailors do
not float on theory, and the welded tankers had a
most annoying habit of splitting in two."
-J.W. Morris

I think the easiest way to cut down on your intake is to eat slower. Dieting is only half the battle though, You can eat 2500 calories a day and still be a fat ass. Not to imply that you are. I kick back about 3000 calories a day as a rough estimate and my weight fluctuates 5-10 lbs depending on my level of activity.

Rather then dieting, become more active. It'll certainly requiring a combination of the two, but altering your metabolism will have a greater effect on your body then altering your intake. I'd say anyway.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Does anyone have any good hints, or ideas, for keeping this sort of thing in mind, 24/7? Because I sure as hell don't.

You need to adopt habits that make you more mindful about eating.

As mentioned above, food journals are a great way to make you aware and accountable for what you eat, but there are also other really simple habits that you can fit easily into your daily life:1. Limit your eating to one room at home and one room at work. If you have to -go- somewhere to eat, you'll be more aware of it.2. Sit down while eating. No multi-tasking. When you're eating, be focused on eating.3. Set the table before eating. This increases the amount of time you have to think about what you're eating.4. Put down your form for two minutes in the middle of a meal. Use this time to think about how hungry you -actually- are.5. Remove external food cues from your home (e.g. cookie jars)6. Get rid of unhealthy goods that take no preparation and replace them with healthy foods that take no preparation. You seem to already be into fruit, so you probably already do this.7. Eat before you're -starving-. If you let yourself get hungry, you'll usually binge. When you eat, only eat until you're -just- satiated, not until you're stuffed.

Take on one or two habits per week, if you try to take on more than that, they will be difficult to adopt.

Also, it's hard to just -remove- behaviours that we do. Right now, you see food, so you eat it. You need to -replace- that response with something else instead of just trying to eliminate it. Maybe you see food, and you put it away, or you see food, and you give it to someone else.

Agent Anderson wrote:Get back to the math & computer jokes; math is sexier than sex.

Izawwlgood wrote:Dieting is only half the battle though, You can eat 2500 calories a day and still be a fat ass.

Rather then dieting, become more active. It'll certainly requiring a combination of the two, but altering your metabolism will have a greater effect on your body then altering your intake. I'd say anyway.

Gunfingers wrote:It's not as simple as cutting back. I could cut back to only eating 2000 calories a day, but if it's all ice cream it's still pretty bad.

Nope, it's called conservation of energy. The first law of thermodynamics is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. For your body to survive it needs a certain minimum amount of energy, roughly proportional to the quantity of water it contains (more water requires more energy to maintain at a certain temperature and chemical composition, as well as more energy to pump through the body).

If you are not consuming the requisite energy, it has to come from somewhere or you will die. In the plan I suggest (dieting), it will come from your fat stores.

Furthermore, a fundamental concept in nature is equilibrium. If you consume a set number of calories per day, your body will store the extra as fat. However, that fat requires more energy to service (otherwise it turns into dead tissue). So, as you gain fat the number of extra calories available decreases, even though your daily caloric intake is constant. When extra calories = 0, your body has achieved equilibrium and you have reached the weight for that level of caloric intake. This is called a feedback loop, and there are tons of examples throughout the natural world and especially biology of systems coming to equilibrium through a feedback mechanism. Assuming all other factors (mainly, activity level) remain constant, there will be a direct correlation between average daily calorie intake and weight. It doesn't matter how many calories you have eaten in the past. Your steady state weight will depend ONLY on how many calories you are currently consuming on a daily average.*

This also means that if someone were to follow my plan, they would eventually stop losing weight, because their body will have come to equilibrium again (but at the lower weight). So, you need to recalculate your equilibrium or maintenance calorie value and subtract from it again every month or two.

*For the purposes of this explanation it was assumed that activity level does not change. "Steady State" means after a sufficiently long time without a change in inputs, usually 4-8 weeks for the situation described, possibly more.

Solt, i'm not sure if your aware of how a body works, but unless you increase your level of metabolic activity, your body will be composed entirely of sinew and bone. If you weigh 120 lbs but have a weak heart, you can diet all you want, eat 2000 calories a day, and you won't be a healthy human being. Conversely, you can weigh 120 lbs and be ropey muscle and cardiovascularly fit, and safely and healthily eat a 3000 calorie a day diet.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

Yes, I know that. I'm not making any claims about how healthy anyone will be. I'm not saying don't exercise, I'm merely ignoring it to simplify my explanation of the basic premise of weight loss/gain. If you're eating 3000 calories you have to burn 1000 of those calories in exercise to maintain weight. And yes, you will be healthier than if you ate 2000 calories and did no exercise. In both cases your weight will settle at the same value, but with exercise you'll be healthier. I probably should have included the equations, that would have made it all clear...

In any case, cutting just a few hundred calories while keeping the same level of activity isn't exactly going to cause massive muscle atrophy. It'll probably have minimal effect on muscles unless they are highly developed in the first place.

MJ, I recommend doing the cooking. It'll give you a better overview of what your about to consume (and your wife will thank you for it!). Unless your a horrid chef. Then stay away from the spice rack and make something very simple, like pasta and sausage. Do jumping jacks, crunches, or pushups while waiting for the pasta to boil.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

I have a similar eating habit at work, where I am tempted to go out for big lunches and eat during the day. I have done several things to help out with this. First, I have started to carry less cash with me when I go to work, and only a credit card that I normally don't use (it ties to an older bank account that I have). That way when I look at how much money I have, I am less likely to want to go out, since I think I don't have the money. Also, a group of us has started going to lunches on Friday. Although this sounds counter intuitive, I try to make sure that I don't go out for lunch the rest of the week. If I break this, I don't go out to lunch on Friday...which is a real bummer. Like you, I have begun to bring fruit into work, thus when I get hungry midmorning, I just eat a banana or apple. Lastly, I try ride my bicycle to work whenever possible. For me its only 3-4 miles, on pretty flat terrain. Although this may not be an option for you, maybe depending on how you get to work and where you live, you could just walk to the bus in the mornings and get some exercise during your daily commute. Best of luck in your dieting.

Izawwlgood wrote:MJ, I recommend doing the cooking. It'll give you a better overview of what your about to consume (and your wife will thank you for it!). Unless your a horrid chef. Then stay away from the spice rack and make something very simple, like pasta and sausage. Do jumping jacks, crunches, or pushups while waiting for the pasta to boil.

Wow, my thread has posts.

I already do 95% of the meals when I'm home. She actually asks me to let her cook once in a while (tonight: she made mushroom-pepper-garlic pizzas, homemade cornbread dough, home-made sauce, and crumbled ground beef from the farm... yarm!)

I walk to and from the mall every day now (2.2 km) at lunch, and I feel wierd if I don't. I do pushups in the morning, and use my resistance bands at night. No change yet, but I do feel more energetic, a little.

Giving it time, taking it slow. Kids have been sick for 3 weeks straight in varying amounts (one daughter just finished barfing on her bed) so most of my thoughts are taken up with "Prevent disaster for five more minutes... prevent disaster for five more minutes..."

Solt wrote:Nope, it's called conservation of energy. The first law of thermodynamics is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. For your body to survive it needs a certain minimum amount of energy, roughly proportional to the quantity of water it contains (more water requires more energy to maintain at a certain temperature and chemical composition, as well as more energy to pump through the body).

This is an oversimplification.

In 100 calories of All Bran, 47 calories of those calories fiber. A very small percentage of those 47 calories will be absorbed into your body (fiber mainly creates bulk for the feces). Every calorie of 100 calories of ice cream will be absorbed into your body.

Your conservation of energy theory doesn't hold up for the body, because of how caloric intake affects how the body uses energy. Eating less decreases your basal metabolic rate, that is, the number of calories you use to survive. When you're eating less, the body becomes more efficient, and converts less of your food-energy to heat-energy. This means, you can drastically decrease your caloric intake and stay exactly the same weight, because your body will adapt. You can counteract this effect by exercising, which raises your metabolic rate. The best strategy is to combine diet and exercise.

Agent Anderson wrote:Get back to the math & computer jokes; math is sexier than sex.

Congrats to commiting to be healthier! It takes a hell of a lot of work, but here's to going for it! <raises glass>

As someone who watches their diet like a hawk, exerscies to stress mangae, wrestled in high school(i.e I have seen many people destroy themselves with anarexoic/bingle cycles), and has a strong background in bio, I thought I should throw in my two cents.

Just a few point to keep in mind:

-It takes your body three to four week of constant exerscie to build muscle; prior to that your strength increases are due to your brain rewiring itself to be more efficent. Don't get discouraged if you don't have a six pack just yet!

-It takes about three to four months for your tastebuds to adapt to a new diet. Always improve your diet, but Don't <<KEY WORD "Don't" added 3/3/08, sorry for any confusion>> be to hard on yourself if you cant become a vegan overnight(my girlfriend is gluten sensative; just about the only thing she can eat resembaling bread is rice cakes. Its been around six months now and I think she is beginning to stomach them...). The good news is that after a few months, you will have developed a 'taste buffer' against unhealthy foods which used to taste good.

-If you are 300lbs ( roughly 3300 calories/daily to maintain body weight) and walk five miles per day (roughly 500 calories for a 150lb man) then you need to eat roughly 3800 calories per day to maintain your body weight. If your goal is 180lbs(~2,000cals/day; sedinary lifestyle) and you eat 2,000/day you have just created an 1,800 calorie/day deficet. Not only is this calorie deficit greater then some peoples daily diet, you have just put your body into startvation mode. Which is very bad(and why fad diets fail). Solt has probably posted the best diet advice so far: create a calorie defeict of about 500 calories per day and not much more. A 3000 calroie/day diet *might* actually be a sensable place to start. Just make sure you eat good stuff.

-for your body, fat is money in the bank; muscle is equipment. If your body is going out of buisness(calorie loss), your body sells off the unused equipment (muscle), and increase capital.(this is why years of yo-yo dieting can leave people in really awful health). Whatever you do, always stay active.

In high school, I would have been a wrestler (I had the size and the lifting power) but that meant I would have to spend more time with people I didn't even like sharing air with (no offense).

Right now I'm feeling pretty good... my walking burns about 300 calories, and I try my best to lay low on the calories... except for the Oreos I just had. Apart from that, I'm staying low. So far.

...

Shut up. I'm working on it. Eating less doesn't work for me, because after three days, no matter what, I am so hungry that I will find a way to justify going to the bank, taking money out, going to Subway, getting a foot-long BBQ rib, THEN feeling bad. Eating healthier doesn't work as well, either, because after three days I crave MSG and saturated fats... well, salt, more than anything. Then it's back to Subway. I am working on finding food that doesn't make me all crave-y, but still keeps me full.

MJ, you have to learn to resist temptation, to suffer the intense craving for junk and yet not allow yourself to cave in. Try setting one day a week where you can eat whatever you like, but in moderate portions...and then there's not the same feeling of deprivation, you have something to look forward to and you can really enjoy the reward when 1. you know you've earned it, and 2. you know it's an occasion rather than a regularity and thus deserves to be savoured. At least that's what I'm trying at the moment, actually speaking of...

"Some people need a red carpet rolled out in front of them in order to walk forward into friendship. They can't see the tiny outstretched hands all around them, everywhere, like leaves on trees."

Solt wrote:Nope, it's called conservation of energy. The first law of thermodynamics is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. For your body to survive it needs a certain minimum amount of energy, roughly proportional to the quantity of water it contains (more water requires more energy to maintain at a certain temperature and chemical composition, as well as more energy to pump through the body).

This is an oversimplification.

In 100 calories of All Bran, 47 calories of those calories fiber. A very small percentage of those 47 calories will be absorbed into your body (fiber mainly creates bulk for the feces). Every calorie of 100 calories of ice cream will be absorbed into your body.

Your conservation of energy theory doesn't hold up for the body, because of how caloric intake affects how the body uses energy. Eating less decreases your basal metabolic rate, that is, the number of calories you use to survive. When you're eating less, the body becomes more efficient, and converts less of your food-energy to heat-energy. This means, you can drastically decrease your caloric intake and stay exactly the same weight, because your body will adapt. You can counteract this effect by exercising, which raises your metabolic rate. The best strategy is to combine diet and exercise.

Well I've got 2 responses. First, if we're talking strictly about conservation of energy, I stand by everything I said. Conservation of energy isn't just some theory! If you climb 20 feet, you will burn the same amount of energy no matter how efficient or inefficient your body is being. It's basic physics.

But then again, I did talk about base metabolic rate and you are right, the body will decrease it if it thinks that it is starving. That's why starving isn't a good way to lose weight- most of the time it doesn't even work for just that reason. I probably should have mentioned that, but I was trying to tailor my explanation to MJ's situation. If you're talking about someone who needs to consume 4000 calories per day, and I'm talking about only cutting 500 of those... I think everything I said applies.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Shut up. I'm working on it. Eating less doesn't work for me, because after three days, no matter what, I am so hungry that I will find a way to justify going to the bank, taking money out, going to Subway, getting a foot-long BBQ rib, THEN feeling bad. Eating healthier doesn't work as well, either, because after three days I crave MSG and saturated fats... well, salt, more than anything. Then it's back to Subway. I am working on finding food that doesn't make me all crave-y, but still keeps me full.

That's why it's so important to actually count. You'll find that cutting a few hundred calories is pretty easy, especially if you spread your meals out. That's another thing I didn't mention- body builders wouldn't even think about trying to lose or gain weight without first switching to about 6 meals per day. If you're gaining it makes it easier to eat more. If you're losing, it evens out your energy delivery so you don't get hungry.

If that doesn't work, go to your doctor and get a cholesterol test. Then, hold your results and look at your kids and wife and think of what you'll put them through if you have a heart attack within 10 or 20 years. I know that for me, fear of what certain foods will do to my arteries is way more than enough to make me lose my appetite for them, especially since both my grandpas have had heart attacks, one of them at the age of 44 followed by a triple coronary bypass. If you can't control the eating, you have no choice but to step up the exercise. Train for a fucking marathon. Try to row across the English Channel or bike up Everest. Whatever it takes.

Mighty Jalapeno wrote:Shut up. I'm working on it. Eating less doesn't work for me, because after three days, no matter what, I am so hungry that I will find a way to justify going to the bank, taking money out, going to Subway, getting a foot-long BBQ rib, THEN feeling bad. Eating healthier doesn't work as well, either, because after three days I crave MSG and saturated fats... well, salt, more than anything. Then it's back to Subway. I am working on finding food that doesn't make me all crave-y, but still keeps me full.

MJ,

I hope that my earlier post was not the one that got you frustrated. It seems as though a lot of this reply referenced things that I suggested. The reason I thought I'd put my two cents in as well, is that I have just started to try to lose some weight that I gained during school. I understand how frustrating it can be, because this is probably my 3rd attempt started work (June '07) to try and lose some weight. The things I mentioned are just what I have found has been working for me recently, and it has taken me several tries to get to a point where I think it may be working. I think the most important part is to find something that works for you. My suggestions were just things that have worked for me, but everyone is different.

Solt wrote:Well I've got 2 responses. First, if we're talking strictly about conservation of energy, I stand by everything I said. Conservation of energy isn't just some theory! If you climb 20 feet, you will burn the same amount of energy no matter how efficient or inefficient your body is being. It's basic physics.

Solt, Your still missing the point. If your in great shape, climbing 20 ft will burn far less energy then if your in horrid shape. Thats why cutting down on the calories is important, but getting in shape is more important.

MJ, i feel you on the 'but I'm fucking hungry!' vibe. Don't give up! It'll take time! Your waking more, and thats good, keep at it! You said you've got kids right, and are sometimes in avoid disaster mode? It sounds like your going to have a hard time getting together the motivation for an hour or so of cardio or working out on a regular basis. Have you considered getting one of those neato little cycle things you can do while sitting at your desk? Name of the game should just be getting your heart rate up for even a short time every day.

i hunker down in winters and turn into a hibernating blob, but its important to do SOMETHING physically active regularly.

... with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.

In my experience (I'm not the skinniest of guys around, either...), carrots, hard-boiled eggs and apples can get rid of an appetite fairly easily. Also, before you eat anything, I suggest a glass of water. I always walk around with a bottle.

Also, I'm not sure if you do this or not and I know it can be difficult, but try to eat three large meals instead of several small ones throughout the day? In my experience, regardless of how much I eat during three meals, it helps me lose weight.